lit a candle 1d ago93 is a long run. Never followed track much but you can't argue with 2,000 homes built in a city that needed them.
Their story
Jesse William "J. W." Mashburn was an American sprinter and Oklahoma City homebuilder who ran the third leg for the United States team that won the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. A double NCAA champion at Oklahoma A&M, now Oklahoma State University, he…
Jesse William "J. W." Mashburn was an American sprinter and Oklahoma City homebuilder who ran the third leg for the United States team that won the 4 x 400 metres relay at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. A double NCAA champion at Oklahoma A&M, now Oklahoma State University, he later built more than 2,000 homes across south Oklahoma City. He died on 13 November 2026, aged 93.
Mashburn was born in Seminole, Oklahoma, on 14 February 1933. He won the AAU title over 440 yards in 1953 and, running for Oklahoma A&M, took the NCAA 440 yard title in 1955 and again in 1956, when he won in 46.6 seconds. He earned All-American honours several times and was later named Oklahoma's 400 metre runner of the century and the state's track athlete of the century.
He first went to the Olympics in 1952, travelling to Helsinki as part of the relay squad, but did not run after the American coaches brought hurdler Charlie Moore into the team. At the 1955 Pan American Games in Mexico City he won gold in the 4 x 400 metres relay and bronze in the individual 400 metres. In 1956 he again placed fourth at the final trials, and this time he ran in Melbourne, carrying the third leg as the United States took the relay gold.
Mashburn graduated from Oklahoma A&M in 1957 with a degree in physical education. He had planned to coach and sold real estate at weekends while training for further Olympic trials, but a torn Achilles tendon ended his running career. He turned to property full time, and from 1960 owned and ran J. W. Mashburn Homes. With his brother Berry, who joined him in home building in 1971, he developed some 15 subdivisions in Oklahoma and Cleveland counties, and he also ran J. W. Mashburn Development and RIF Apartments.
He served on the boards of home builders' associations at local and national level, as a trustee of Oklahoma City public schools and on the MAPS for Kids Trust and the Oklahoma State Fair Board. He was inducted into the OSU Athletics Hall of Honor in 2000, the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 2001 and the OSU Hall of Fame in 2014.
Mashburn and his wife Connie lived in southwest Oklahoma City. His son Michael died in 2004 and his brother Berry in 2021.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), Olympedia, Oklahoma State University, J. W. Mashburn Homes and The Oklahoman. Wikipedia ↗
Photos
1J. W. Mashburn, OSU Hall of Fame portrait
by People Forever
